@tangoman64 Great news! Your are ahead of the game. Pre-read is awesome. Pull together a good resume, take a few standardized tests to get the best possible superscore and be prepared to provide an unofficial transcript at the end of junior year. A successful pre-read could result in a nice letter from Admissions. I would also suggest an overnight with an athlete, if possible, senior year.
One third if their students participate in athletics. They have a strong alumni network that supports their programs. Athletics is another indicator of a strong overall college. My personal opinion is they are leveraging their large endowment and investing in all aspectsof the college. This is a school that were it located on the east or west coast would be the top LAC in the country. A strong athletic department will help them recruit the best student athletes in the country.
The Grinnell athletes we’ve met have been super impressive students and people and the programs support athletes studying abroad, internships etc.
I know we (our high school) have at least one tennis player on the men’s team at the moment. Met a few tennis families on a recent visit and they were super happy with the program (my son is not a tennis player btw).
Feel free to direct message me if u have any questions!
I hope she gets in, Grinnellhopeful. I am so sorry about your husband. Best wishes to you and your daughter. Did you apply ED1 or are you holding off for ED2? I suggest using the free Khan Academy program to raise her ACT score.
Correct. You just have to submit a general essay. My daughter applied ED1 to Grinnell (waiting anxiously, should hear in perhaps a week to 10 days) and was advised to write an essay revealing who she is as a person. She was told they wanted the essay to give them some idea as to what she will look like as a student on campus.
I think there are a total of 4 families here whose children have applied ED. I hope our kids all get in and we can meet in August. I think we all appreciate what is so special about Grinnell.
@tangoman64 My daughter was also recruited for the tennis team (class of 2022)! 'Hope both our kids get in.
@ellivdeal Best of luck to your daughter - hope she gets in!!
Positive vibes to all the families that are eagerly awaiting news from this ED round. I hope all of our kids get in.
I predict we will find out Monday or Tuesday. How’s everyone holding up? I’m wishing all of you that applied ED1 find a congratulations email in your portal.
There’s an interesting phenomenon happening here in our house. The closer we get to decision day, the longer the days become. Does anyone have tips for surviving?
Work on other applications, just in case!
We did. 3 schools have responded very favorably already. We took the advise of posters in this thread.
Thank you all. I’ll be happy to share details by PM if interested, when the official letters come, I’ll post publicly. 2 of the schools mentioned in this thread even gave me numbers. It was very encouraging after feeling rather discouraged about her chances at Grinnell. Although, odd to be given a green light over the phone with verbal guarantee of aid.
This may be more applicable for its own post but I will comment here as there seems to be a large number of views on this post. Have you ever had a negative experience with an admissions officer? In any of your interactions (phone, on campus, college fair etc) have you ever had a rep from admissions discourage a student from applying? This isn’t specific to Grinnell, but those who apply to Grinnell seem to also apply to the same group of LACs. Curious to identify if there is any anecdotal evidence that links positive or negative admissions feedback with acceptance rate.
Hi Cornellian88, I can’t link anecdotal evidence, and we too are waiting for a decision from G next week. I will say that in the exploration phase, my son attended several college soccer camps. He was warmly received by Bowdoin, and even though he didn’t make the A team (he was offered the B team), the Coach continued to recommend he apply and Bowdoin continues to send emails (both the generic type which mean nothing, and more personal ones). Meanwhile, Middlebury has been cold throughout (including the camp, as well as a denial for diversity weekend), and their emails are only the generic type. I feel as if certain colleges put him in a higher priority group and send way more information and messages, and others are merely business only. Of course we may not find out if this correlates with an offer of admission, if he’s lucky enough to get in ED to Grinnell next week. Grinnell has been quite positive overall, although at one point the regional rep made a suggestion that he consider retaking the SAT which had me worried. He also received a positive handwritten thank you letter from the person who interviewed him and a positive email from the soccer coach there. Of course even with coach support, admission isn’t guaranteed so we are taking nothing for granted.
@Cornellian88 I obviously don’t have admission decisions in hand as andectodal evidence, yet. I’ll be able to better answer your question when I do. Also, we have not interacted with 20 schools. We were not looking for a stack of “yes” letters, we were looking for a place that fits. I can say there’s a difference between being friendly and being excited. When an admissions director tells me they’re going to get a letter out by the end of next week with a guarantee of x amount of dollars in scholarship money, I view that as beyond just a friendly conversation where my child’s file has been reviewed.
To add another caveat to your equation…would you really even want to consider a school that didn’t treat you warmly. In a situation like that, I might immediately try to sway my child in a different direction.
We are also assessing the school. That knife cuts both ways.
I might also add that one of the other schools we went ahead and submitted her file to, just sent what appeared to be a form email. Also very friendly, but not necessarily personal. Nor did they reach out by text and phone call to my daughter and myself. I don’t know if that means that she wouldn’t be considered at that school? But my prediction is the ones that reach out personally and appear very excited, are schools that would be happy to have a student in their next admitted class. As I said to a friend earlier, maybe it’s just recruit the poverty level kid week?
I certainly think you have the right to be hopeful. I’ve never heard of an AO promising a certain amount of scholarship money before an official acceptance. If that’s the case, it seems like a good sign.
@berberina thanks that was the kind of feedback I was looking for. It’s interesting how the process differs when the student is also being recruited by a sports team. It’s a two headed monster as you have both Admissions and athletic departments to interact with. Although the athletic department may bring a more personalized flavor to the process the ultimate power rests with the admissions team. I appreciated your observations regarding how schools seem to alter their recruiting activities over time based on interest. We had a peculiar situation where a coach would send weekly handwritten cards to my son but never returned emails or texts or made phone calls - it was nearly impossible to gauge the interest level.
I will say that Grinnell does an excellent job recruiting student athletes and has been making an effort to increase the ED rate of student athletes. I believe athletes made up 25% of last years ED acceptances. Good luck to your son
As the parent of an athlete currently being recruited by Grinnell, I second this. My D is really feeling the love from Grinnell.
Decisions are posted on the Grinnell portal.
My daughter was accepted! So happy! I hope everybody else here has favorable news. Best wishes to all!
Congratulations @ellivdeal! Fingers crossed for everyone else!